Ridiculously Long Lines at BWI
 

And the culprit is Southwest. They are making all sorts of excuses, but the bottom line is that a lot of people are missing their flights despite showing up in plenty of time. Someone showed up three hours early and missed his flight. Furthermore, they are not calling people out of line in order to catch their flight.

The three reasons they gave for the long lines are that they didn't anticipate the extra traffic, that people aren't used to the new security, and that people are showing up way too early.

Excuses number one and three are complete and utter BS, if you ask me. Uh, hello, it is Christmas and you didn't anticipate extra traffic? As for the third excuse, well, maybe if they would get with the program and assign seats, they wouldn't have people showing up eight hours before their flight!

Eight hours before a flight from BWI to BDA? Hell, you could drive there in less time. What's wrong with these people?

After one trip on WN to BWI, I made a promise and not to fly WN again. The lines were so long...that people missed their flights, of course there were only there an hour earlier...and this is last year. Long lines and WN are inseparable.



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Regards,

Al

Well what would you expect at this time of the year? I think Southwest is a nice airline for a short hop in the middle of the week during most of the year.

To fly them during the holidays I would really need to take a good look.

This is when I am happy for elite status
with all the benefits that come with it.

Bermuda is about a 12 hour drive from Baltimore, after the bridge is completed. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Good, there isn't any reason to pull people out of line to cut in front of me and make me wait because they were not early enough. Over Thanksgiving the line for us to get through security was 90 minutes (short by today's standards) but would have been between 30 and 45 minutes if Delta didn't keep pulling people on earlier flights then I was and cutting them to the front of the line.

I think it sucks that the lines are so long and that people may miss their flights, but if you got there after I did for a flight before mine was leaving that isn't my fault and you shouldn't be part of the further cause for my delay. As it was you were best to show up within 30 minutes of flight time, they would immediatly take you out and put you in front of all the people who got there in time.

mdtony - you are right. It is B.S.! SW lines at BWI have been horrific every time I have been there since 9/11. Day of week and time of day haven't made much difference. You would think after 3 months, the security routine would no longer be "new" and they would have a grip on it. I fly SW a lot and BWI is the worst security scene they have going anywhere I have been.

Today at OAK in the WN terminal, 4 hours early wasn't enough for many folks, and they missed their flights and can't get rebooked for a few days. Some of the people who reporters saw outside on the 5 AM news were still not through security by the noon news.

My bad. Typo. I meant BDL.

Although Bermuda would be a lot nicer these days.

Well, you're right about people who show up like half an hour before the flight. But there are people showing up three hours before the flight who are missing their flights and the airlines (Southwest included) are telling them to show up two hours before.

For my flight on New Year's Day on Delta, since I'm not checking bags and Delta doesn't share a terminal with Southwest, I'm going to show up an hour early. That should give me plenty of time since I don't have any luggage to check.

This is why I won't fly them. I am sorry, but I don't want to wait in line for four hours and then miss my flight. That's absurd.

They are going to lose a lot of folks who fly a lot if they keep this up. Granted, they target the folks who fly occasionally who want to get the cheapest fares possible, so maybe they don't mind. But I'm not standing in line for eight hours per round trip!

"The quantity and volume of checked bags is greater than we have seen since September 11th," said (OAK) airport spokesperson Cyndy Johnson.

There were delays at San Francisco and San Jose airports also today, but nothing like Southwest's problems at Oakland.

http://beta.kpix.com/news/local/2001...d_Airport.html

Let's face facts:

Southwest @ BWI is lame, lame, lame.

Lines are horrific at check-in and again at "security." Wash POST has run numerous articles as to the severe backups at BWI, and the desperate, scrabbling attempts by airport honchos to release the bottlenecks...to no avail.

The result is aggravation, frustration, missed flights, & a free-for-all atmosphere at BWI. Thank you, elected officials.

BWI airport management is pathetique, and has not installed enough security checkpoints nor other measures to ease the passenger crush towards the gates. Once in awhile you'll read an inane quote from some feeb at BWI management re: "The reduction in flights at DCA & IAD has increased the load on our facility & we're doing the best we can." I'm feeling the effects of the curtain of garbage!!

Spare us the bullwhickey!! It's been months since the New World Airline Order has descended upon us all, and BWI is still stumbling about like a one-legged man in a butt-kickin' contest. (No apologies for the semantics: graphic terms are necessary to describe BWI's redundancies & idiocies.)

I traveled to SDQ through MIA & ended up seeking out & paying a friendly skycap usd$5.00 to scoot me through to the front of the no-end-in-sight-security-line as if I were a VIP. I zipped right on through a one-hour plus wait. No apologies here, it's "Darwin Travel" these days, because of the airlines refusal to ramp up security & security expenses. Ya snooze, ya lose. Thanks to the refusal of the airlines to hire competent & enough screeners at security checkpoints, we are all in a scrambling free-for-all to get on board.....

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Only one thing endures & that is character.
- Greeley

oops,


[This message has been edited by TrojanHorse (edited 12-22-2001).]

They have had months to deal with this problem. It is really puzzling that they have not fixed it. Since 9/11 the lines have been horrendous quite often. I know they announced that they were expanding the number of concurrent lanes but I guess it isn't enough.

Oh well...the good news is that they are doing relatively well, and any healthy airline is welcome news.

I'd gladly http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif pay way MORE than $5. to go to the front of the security line. How hard is is to find a sykcap who will actually get you there and has anyone tried it in ATL?

[This message has been edited by flowerchild (edited 12-22-2001).]

The solution here is simple, and one that Southwest ought to have implemented:

1. require all people to get a "gold card" in order to enter the security line.

2. you get a "gold card" before going to security, and you can't get a "gold card" until, say, 1.5 hours prior to your flight.

3. Southwest is clear when you make a rez and on their website that you cannot enter security until 1.5 hours, so DO NOT get to the airport too early.

3. you get the "gold card" outside the terminal

Let us emphasize that the problem at BWI is pretty much unique to WN. I have been in and out of there on CO and NW three times in the last few months and have experienced no waits at all at the ticket counters and nothing more than a 10-15 minute wait at the security checkpoints.

CO and NW are easy at BWI, but they fly only to their hubs from BWI.

The reason that WN is bad there is that it is a de facto hub for them. They have a very large number of routes in and out of there and very high frequency.

Top it off with the fact that a larger percentage of WN travellers are leisure travellers, with more bags and less travel experience, and you have a mess!

You get what you pay for http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Southwest could care less if you miss your flight. Low cost<> No frills<> No worry<> its not our problem blame it on 9-11> Thats what I was told flying from there home Dallas Love field last week. IF I had my choice I would never fly them.

Here's more on that situation. And after reading the response of the folks at Southwest, I will NEVER fly them. Period. I'll walk first.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Dec21.html

Brewer and her fellow employees can go straight to hell. I'll be ****ed if I show up two hours early, like you say to, and then find out that my seats have been given away to standby passengers due to your airline's flat out incompetence. Your stupid no reserved seating policy is what's causing this problem. People get there really early because they want to get good seats. Well, you can solve that problem by assigning seats ahead of time. If you want to keep those cheap plastic cards to save a few bucks, then print them up with a seat number and give those out.

It's ridiculous, and saying it's because of the aftermath of September 11 is absolute crap. They've had more than three months to get it together, and they can't.

Screw 'em. My butt will never be on one of their flights, ever.

Confused. I've never seen it where a skycap got you to the front of a line, only carried your luggage to the front. Once you check in you don't have any luggage, so a skycap wouldn't be of much assistance. Are there places they escort you to the front too?

monitor and richard,

Glad to hear that NW is not a problem (heading to BWI on Thurs.)! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

It appears the WN business model has broken down. For the third day in a row, there were near riots in the three lines (bag check, security and gate) of incredible length each WN customer had to endure at SJC. Meanwhile, long though they were, the American lines moved swiftly.

What excuses are they making for this? Hello, Herb Kelleher, it's been three and a half months. It's time to get it together and figure out how to fix the problem.

Just saying, oh, we have more volume than we expected won't hack it, especially given the fact that it's right around Christmas and Southwest KNEW they'd have a lot of people trying to fly them.

Screw 'em. They aren't all that much cheaper and I'm not putting up with that crap.

One thing that must be remembered about Southwest is that no assigned seats are an essential part of their business. They do that in order to force passengers to get to the gate early, and scramble to get on the plane. As a result, they are able to turn a plane around at the gate -- unload, load, and depart -- faster than any other airline. This is one way they keep costs ultra-low: essential for them since they regard their competition the automobile more so than other airlines.

I flew Southwest - ONCE. IMHO it's just a case of getting what you pay for. If you want to pay the lowest possible price, then you can't really complain about being treated like an animal, since many folks looking to travel ultra cheap are willing to put up with shabby treatment. I'd rather take my business elsewhere, where the pax are treated better.

If it's any compensation, a similar problem occurred at LHR T1 on Saturday morning when lines for BMI snaked around the whole terminal and security lines were just as long. My flight to EDI was held to allow late check in passengers to get to it as the rest of the day had full flights.
However, especially frustrating were empty chec-in computers, which could easily have been used had the staff been available.

Agree that BWI can ne a nightmare. Due to some stroke of luck, I haven't been in one of those lines yet, but see them all too often.
I flew out on WN last week with a lot of worry about the lines and leaving on time, esp. since I had to check luggage with the Xmas gifts. There were no lines at the counter or the security check point. Whew. No lines returning at PBI either. However, as I came out of BWI's concourse B, there were about 150 folks in four lines waiting to get through the security checkpoint for that concourse. And that wasn't a security infraction day.

Which is more reason why they need to fix this type of problem... Why should I stand in line and wait 4 hours for a 45-minute flight? If it's going to take me that long to fly BWI-ORF, I might as well drive...

Well, it doesn't appear that this business model will work given current security restrictions. So they can either adapt or die.

Also, they can't have it both ways. You can't say, don't show up more than two hours early and then screw people by either giving them crappy seats or by having them miss their flights.

Who'd have thought that the first airline to have real problems post September 11 would be the one that everyone was pointing to as a model of efficiency.

At 2pm today there was no one at all in line at BWI. I asked the counter agent about this, and she said they only have those huge lines after some sort of a security mishap, of which there have been 4 lately.

Depending on which airline you took, that could be a flat out lie. There were no security breaches that I am aware of at BWI during the Christmas rush, and the line at Southwest was so long that people showing up three hours before their flight was due to leave didn't make it.

That's ridiculous.

how do you figure? seems to me that their biz model is to carry passengers and make money. they are the only one still doing both.

let's face it, the future is in the hands of the road warrior. since we make a high percentage of the revenue for all airlines (WN included), we make everything OK everytime we step onboard. the fact that mrs. duxfan had her needle taken away at MDW, and that i'm gonna have to have my shoes scanned is making me rethink my flying. i used to fly in order to avoid driving. now i'm leaning the other way. i have a couple trips to chicago that i would've flown for, but now i'm going to drive the 6 hours each way.

once the high revenue road warriors start driving, every airline is going to be in a world of hurt....

For how long, though? Okay, maybe joe blow who flies three times a year is willing to put up with an eight hour line, but how many of us who have to do it a few times a month are willing to put up with that?

And even Joe Blow is going to start to get pissed off. Why bother to try to fly Southwest from BWI to BDL when you have to wait in line for eight hours for a 40 minute flight? Hell, you can drive it in less time.

One hour 10 minutes at 6am to get to NW/CO/DL on the C councourse. The other couple times I've flown out of C (incl. Thanksgiving weekend), 5 minute wait. This is ridiculous. I understand the need for more security but it's been over three months and the passenger loads the day after Christmas are entirely predictable. Having wildly varying checkpoint passthrough times is unaccaptable at this point. BWI needs to get its act together ASAP.

In comparison, there were NO lines at American Airlines at Reagan National at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 26. And I mean, NO lines!

This morning at 6:15 AM there was a 15-minute wait for screening to concourse C.

I was on NW, but did notice (could not miss) the presence of a very long snaking line of Southwest pax. Don't know if they were waiting to get to the ticket counter or thru security.

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Middle_Seat